THE EMERGENCE OF ORGANIZED LABOR APUSH - Spiconardi

In 1900, one of every five children under the age of 16 worked outside the home.

WORKING CONDITIONS: HEALTH HAZARDS  An 1884 study of the Illinois Central Railroad concluded that one in twenty of its workers had either been killed or permanently disabled as a result of a work accident  For railroad brakemen, the rate was one in seven

WORKING CONDITIONS: HEALTH HAZARDS  Mining  Lack of government regulations and mine inspections, the United States mining industry was 50 percent more dangerous than in Germany  Between the years 1876 and 1925, roughly 2,000 coal miners died on average per year What other dangerous conditions could result from mining aside from the physical dangers?

THE EMERGENCE OF THE LABOR MOVEMENT  Labor unions began to grow in the 1870s in response to the working conditions  Unions wanted to right to collectively bargain  Collective bargaining  the process by which employees and management negotiate wages, working conditions, and work hours  Strategies  Make political alliances with sympathetic rural voters with common problems  Create narrowly focused trade unions to directly negotiate with employers

THE KNIGHTS OF LABOR  Founded by Terrence Powderly in 1869  Membership  Skilled and unskilled workers  Women  Blacks  Philosophy & Practices  “If we desire to enjoy the full blessings of life, a check must be placed upon unjust accumulation, and the power for evil of aggregated wealth.”  “Labor is the only creator of values and capital”  Electoral action could bring about government regulation  Causes and Goals  End child labor  Equal opportunity and wages for women  Eight-hour work day

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR (AFL)  Founded by Samuel Gompers in 1886  Membership  Skilled workers  Blacks and women not welcome  Service workers not welcome  This narrow base would later become a problem  Philosophy and Practices  Pure-and-Simple Unionism  Pure – Workers organized by craft and occupation  Simple – Simply focus on better wages, hours, and working conditions  Immigration was detrimental to American labor  Use collective bargaining  “Show me the country in which there are no strikes and I’ll show you that country in which there is no liberty.”